List of Lord Voldemort's 7 Horcruxes in the Harry Potter Series

We all evidenced Harry's and his friends transition from childhood to adulthood. They fought valiantly with Voldemort even when all the cards were stacked against them. We recount those concerted efforts put in by Harry and his friends to destroy the Horcruxes to free the world from the evil clutches of Dark power.

Penlighten Staff

Last Updated: Dec 26, 2018

Did you know?

Dementors, the hooded wraiths who are known for sucking out a person's soul are actually J.K. Rowling's manifestation of depression, a disease which she battled for many years.

Voldemort's fixation with 'pure blood' galvanized him to purge the wizard world of wizards with Muggle heritage. His primal fear of dishonorable death motivated him to lock away his soul into seven different Horcruxes (objects), which preserved his soul and allowed him to lead a seemingly immortal life.

In order to get his soul latched into an object or organism, Voldemort was required to slay an innocent life each time, which he remorselessly did. Voldemort put part of his soul into objects that held importance to him and never intended anyone to find them for apparent reasons.

But as fate would have it, Harry Potter found them and destroyed them. Find out what these interesting objects were and how Harry, along with his friends destroyed them.

Marvolo Gaunt's Ring

Voldemort sacrifices his Muggle father, Tom Riddle Sr. and creates his first Horcrux using his maternal grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt's ring. However, it is Dumbledore who destroys the ring with Godric Gryffindor's sword.

But, Dumbledore's jumpiness causes him to lose his right arm as the ring came with the resurrection stone (a magical stone that enables communication with the deceased), and Dumbledore in a bid to reunite with his lost family once again wore it, without thinking about the enchantments that protected it.

Tom Riddle's Diary

After murdering Moaning Myrtle (fellow student and pretty annoying) using his atrocious serpentine creature, Tom Riddle (young Lord Voldemort) brings his second Horcrux into being- his diary. Voldemort places his diary with the hair-gelled-to-the-core Malfoy, who drops the diary surreptitiously in Ginny's cauldron.

Ginny, unaware of the evil diary unbosoms herself in the diary and unwittingly allows it to possess her. Voldemort makes her dance to his evil tune and through her opens the Chamber of Secrets. However, Harry puts up an impressive display of valor- he kills the Basilisk, rescues the damsel in distress, and stabs the diary, destroying the first Horcrux.

Helga Hufflepuff's Cup

Voldemort kills Hepzibah Smith, a wealthy witch with a predilection for antiques and collectibles. Young version of Voldemort, Tom Riddle who himself had an affinity toward valuable objects hankered for Hepzibah's two prized possessions- cup of Helga Hufflepuff and locket of Salazar Slytherin.

Riddle murders Hepzibah, steals the cup, and turns it into a Horcrux. The cup is consigned to Bellatrix Lestrange who keeps it in her vault at Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Hermione, however unconvincing, assumes Bellatrix's appearance, and destroys the cup with Basilisk fang.

Salazar Slytherin's Locket

Voldemort knocks off a muggle tramp and the spell is cast once again to bind his splintered soul to an object. But this object held special importance to him, for it was a relic of Salazar Slytherin, and a lineage symbol since Voldemort was the last descendant of the Parselmouth founder of Hogwarts.

His mother was left with the Slytherin locket but had no respect for an object that priceless and sold it for a paltry amount to a shopkeeper of Borgin & Burkes. But its invaluableness was realized by Hepzibah who bought it for her love of antiques, but her gullible nature gave away her prized possession, which led to her death at the hands of Voldemort.

After a series of convoluted events, the locket is stolen by Harry, Ron, and Hermione from Dolores Umbridge, and is destroyed by our gangly dude Ron with a sweeping stroke of the Gryffindor sword (that was quite a Horcrux, since it showed Ron some heavy snogging vision of Harry and Hermione).

Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem

Voldemort on his unquenchable thirst to immortality goes on to create fifth Horcrux- Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem after killing an Albanian peasant. This Horcrux was one of the most sought-after object as many yenned for its possession - right from Helena (Ravenclaw house ghost and her daughter) to Bloody Baron to our prime baddie Tom Riddle.

An intriguing fact here is that, Harry, chances on the diadem in the Room of Requirement but unaware of its worth, he uses it as a mark to spot the 'The Half-Blood Prince's book', which helps Harry to be a better potioneer.

Voldemort, with a swollen head stashes the diadem in this Room of Requirement thinking that nobody but only he can gain access to this secretive room. But Harry being Harry not only discovers the room but also learns about the Horcrux, which is destroyed unwittingly by Crabbe as he casts the Fiendfyre curse in the room.

Harry Potter

This was quite a surprise. Nobody expected Harry to be a Horcrux, but this revelation helped us comprehend many seemingly inscrutable things like Harry's ability to speak Parseltongue, intermittent aching of his scar, his telepathic ability, and a host of other things.

When Voldemort's Killing Curse backfired after his vain attempt to kill a year-and-three-month old Harry, his waned soul got split and fastened itself to an immediate object, which was Harry himself.

Unbeknownst to Voldemort, Harry lived as his Horcrux, until the dark Lord himself cast the Killing Curse on Harry, thereby killing the Horcrux. The killing of the Horcrux (Harry) was triggered by Voldemort's soul that lived within Harry as it wanted to set itself free from his body and reunite with its master.

Nagini

Nagini, a serpent fatale and Voldemort's special Horcrux was destroyed by Neville Longbottom after he heroically beheads her. When Voldemort had no corporeal form, it was Nagini's venom that kept him alive. She did all dirty work for Voldemort and was perhaps the dearest one to him.

She shared a profound connection with the Dark Lord and could sync her mind with her master. This is ascertained after Nagini attacks Arthur Weasley by giving access to Voldemort and letting him carry out the assault through her.

After Voldemort realizes that Harry is on the hunt of the Horcruxes, he puts Nagini under a magical cage to protect her. But after Harry's feigned death, untended and unwary, he releases her from the shielded covering and in a way gift-wraps her for her doom.

Harry Potter inspired a fanatical following that no other book in the literary world had achieved before. J.K. Rowling's multi-layered, relatable, and eccentric barrage of characters set amidst wizardry background made Harry Potter series a zeitgeist and ubiquitous phenomenon around the world.